In The News

In New York City - the municipal employees’ strike that caused massive traffic snarls escalates by walkout of sewage plant workers that led to the dumping of New York’s daily rate of 1.5 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the city’s waterways. Drawbridges were left open and trucks deliberately stalled just before a morning rush hour, with the result that hundreds of thousands of motorists en route to Manhattan were unable to movie on highways. The tie-up of 28 bridges led to threats by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and Mayor John Lindsay to call out the National Guard.

The Senate passes legislation ordering the secretary of defense to establish a program to identify heroin users in the military and to require all services to grant amnesty to those who turn themselves in for treatment. Under the legislation, a serviceman could not be released from active duty until a competent medical authority had certified that he was rehabilitated, had failed to respond to adequate treatment or had refused to accept treatment and rehabilitation.

Trans-World Airlines says a man who hijacked one of its jetliners at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, was shot and taken into custody after the plane landed at Kennedy Airport. Crewmembers were reportedly unharmed.

Marry - Patricia Nixon and Edward Finch Cox are married in the White House Rose Garden.

Federal officials convert Alcatraz Island into a modified fortress to discourage any attempt by Indians to reoccupy the abandoned prison facility. 20 armed deputy marshals landed on the island form a Coast Guard cutter last Friday and ended nearly 19 months of occupation by Indians, some of the remaining 15 occupiers angrily warned they would regroup and come back.

Best- selling books – June 8, 1971

QB VII - Leon Uris

The New Centurions - Joseph Wambaugh

The Passions of the Mind - Irving Stone

The Throne of Saturn - Allen Drury

Being There - Jerzy Kosinksi

The Exoricist - William Blatty

The Underground Man - Ross Macdonald

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown

Future Shock - Alvin Toffler

The Greening of America - Charles A. Reich

The Grandees - Stephen Birmingham

The Sensuous Man - “M”

The Boss - Mike Royko

The Female Eunuch - Germain Greer

Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45 - Barbara W. Tuchman

Sports news – June 8, 1971

Clete Boyer - former third baseman for the Atlanta Braves is slapped with a $1,000 fine by baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn for betting on college and pro football games in 1968 and 1969.

Passing - actor Michael Rennie (62) - British-born actor and star of the Third Man television series and a veteran of more than 100 motion pictures. Mr. Rennie, an American citizen since 1960, died while visiting his mother in England. Cause of death has not been disclosed.

Music news June 8, 1971

Some music notes - At the Troubadour in Hollywood - Cat Stevens. Also at the Troubadour - Kris Kristofferson. On Bob Dylan’s new single “Watching the River Flow” - you can hear Leon Russell on piano. Columbia Records signs “New Riders of the Purple Sage.”

Grand Funk Railroad’s July 9 concert at New York City’s 55,000-seat Shea Stadium is already declared a sell-out. Though an official gross figure is not available, Grand Funk manager Terry Knight had predicted a $306,000 gate. Grand Funk is the only rock group other than the Beatles, to play Shea Stadium (so far).

Rock N’ roll update - Clive Davis - president of Columbia Records, says rock n’ roll is not losing its vitality as some are saying. In a statement circulated through the record industry trades, Davis predicts a continuing emergence of bright new rock talent and says the shape of pop music may be changing, but it is not dying. Davis says those record companies and others who tied themselves solely to the “group movement” in rock were unrealistic “In the last three years as the group syndrome developed and grew, the individual became submerged. Now, he or she is emerging again and it’s good for music and for its vast public. What is happening right now also is the emergence of the song, of the beautiful material that is the essence of music. New performers like James Taylor, Carole King, Laura Nyro and Elton John are speaking out and they undoubtedly will join Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and McCartney-Lennon as the poet laureates of our times.” No doubt says Davis, competition among rock artists is getting tougher: “This month’s newest guitarist is not flashing his way straight to the top in four quick weeks but that’s only because our great artists are showing tremendous durability are staying right at the top. New openings have to be readily deserved. The only way for new artists to emerge with the same frequency that occurred since Monterey, would be for the artists who came to the fore in ‘68, ‘69 or ‘70 to just a s rapidly fall by the wayside. This has not happened. Chicago, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Three Dog Night. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Santana are all still vital, alive and performing brilliantly. What’s more, the individual Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds have all stayed at the top making it even more difficult for the new artist to prove his special skills. But still they came. Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter, Cat Stevens Mandrill, Leon Russell, Boz Scaggs and many more.”

Actress-singer Barbra Streisand asks the New York Supreme Court to dismiss a 2-year-old $1.15 million breach of contract suit, filed against her by her one-time manager Martin Bergman. He claims she made an oral agreement with him in February of 1963 to pay him 5% of her professional income and income from the three corporations she controlled.

Elvis Presley is signed by the Sahara-Tahoe Hotel in Lake Tahoe to make his first nightclub appearance outside Las Vegas.

Promoter Richard Nader and his Rock ‘N Roll show are more popular than ever. His latest edition includes Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy, Bo Diddley, the Shirelles, the Drifters, the Five Satins, Gary (U.S.) Bonds and Freddy Cannon. Nader, a little-known disc jockey, began the shows in 1969, when he felt audiences were ripe to see the early acts of the genre.

Tony Bennett signs a three-year contract with Riviera in Las Vegas. Other recent Riviera signings include Don Rickles, the 5th Dimension and David Frost.

Susan Saint James will portray Rock Hudson’s wife in the McMillan and Wife s segments of the 90-minute “Mystery Movie” series which debuts in the fall on NBC... Dionne Warwick and the Carpenters are headed for Toronto to tape the 5th Dimension’s “Traveling Sunshine Show” special set to air in August on ABC.